Holland STR Rules: The City's 25-Cap Is Full Right Now

Thomas Garner
Aug 19
11 min read

Updated: 3 days ago

Eighth Street downtown Holland, Michigan

The City of Holland and Holland Charter Township are two separate governing bodies, and they don't share a short-term rental certificate, a cap, or an ordinance. A listing address that simply says "Holland" hasn't actually identified which of these two offices governs that specific parcel - and that identification matters before any marketing or pricing decision.

Inside City of Holland, a short-term rental is defined as a dwelling offered for less than 30 consecutive days, and a Certificate of Compliance is required. The investor-owned cap in the relevant residential zoning districts sits at 25 properties, with a 500-foot separation requirement between them - and as of this pass, the city's own page reports no current openings in that cap. That's a genuinely important fact for anyone considering a new investor-owned Holland listing.

This is not legal advice. It's a guide to keeping the city's rules, the township's separate and partly unconfirmed rules, and the market's published data ($32,326 typical year on 104 listings) each in their correct place - because Holland's own market figures don't answer a compliance question, and a full investor cap doesn't answer a marketing question.

Two Halls, One Town Name

The first question for any Holland-area short-term rental isn't which platform to list on - it's which of the two governing offices actually covers the specific parcel. City of Holland is one office. Holland Charter Township is a separate office. A listing description or compliance packet that treats "Holland" as a single unified jurisdiction hasn't actually identified either one correctly.

This distinction isn't a minor technicality. City rules - the Certificate of Compliance requirement, the 25-property investor cap, the specific zoning categories - don't automatically extend onto a township parcel. Township rules, to the extent they're confirmed, don't extend onto a city parcel either. Each office answers only for the land it actually governs.

It's also worth ruling out the wrong neighbors entirely: Grand Rapids' own municipal rules don't apply to a Holland-area parcel just because the drive down I-196 is short, and Grand Haven is its own separate market with its own separate rules. A parcel's actual address determines the applicable office - not its proximity to any other town's ordinance.

The practical first step, before writing a single line of marketing copy or estimating a compliance timeline, is pulling the parcel's actual map location and confirming which of the two Holland-area offices - or which entirely separate neighboring jurisdiction - actually has authority over it.

What the City Actually Requires Under 30 Days

Within City of Holland, the ordinance defines a short-term rental as a dwelling offered for less than 30 consecutive days per occupant. Any listing meeting that definition requires a Short Term Rental Certificate of Compliance - a specific, named city credential, not a generic business license or a platform-level registration.

Investor-owned short-term rental use is permitted in several zoning categories - NMU, CMU, RMU, GMU, I, PUD, and F where residential use is otherwise permitted, or in LDR, CNR, MDR, and TNR - but investor-owned use in those residential categories specifically is capped at a maximum of 25 properties citywide, with a required 500-foot separation between any two capped properties.

Owner-occupied short-term rental use follows an entirely separate track from the investor-owned cap, discussed in more detail in the next section. The distinction between these two paths - investor-owned versus owner-occupied - is the single most important fork in this ordinance, and conflating the two is one of the most common and costly mistakes a host or buyer can make when researching Holland's rules.

None of this ordinance detail is affected by the market's own published performance figures. A $32,326 typical year and 40.9 percent occupancy across 104 listings describe market performance; they say nothing about whether a specific new listing can legally obtain a certificate, or whether the investor cap currently has room.

The Investor Cap Is Full - Here's What That Actually Means

As of this pass, the city's own published page states there are currently no openings in the 25-property investor-owned residential cap. That's a genuinely significant fact for anyone evaluating a potential Holland-area investor-owned purchase, and it deserves to be stated plainly rather than glossed over or assumed to have room.

It's worth being precise about what this cap actually counts: it's a city-administered limit on investor-owned licenses in specific residential zoning districts, not a measure of how many short-term rental listings currently exist in the broader Holland market. The market's own AirROI sample of 104 listings is a data-provider sample describing existing bookable listing stock - it isn't the same count as the city's licensing cap, and it shouldn't be read as evidence about whether the cap has room.

A broker memo or marketing packet that treats the 104-listing market sample as proof the cap has openings, or that assumes a wait-list functions as an eventual guarantee of a license, is making a real factual error - one that could lead a buyer to purchase a property expecting to obtain an investor-owned certificate that the city's own published cap status says isn't currently available.

The only reliable way to confirm current cap status is asking the city's own Community and Neighborhood Services office directly, since cap status can change as existing certificates lapse or transfer. Treating any secondhand source - a real estate listing, a market report, a general internet search - as authoritative on this specific, time-sensitive fact is a mistake worth avoiding.

Owner-Occupied Rentals Follow a Different Path

Separate from the capped investor-owned track, City of Holland allows owner-occupied short-term rental use in any zone - either renting a single room while the owner continues to live in the home, or renting the entire home during periods when the owner is away. This owner-occupied path isn't subject to the 25-property cap that governs investor-owned use.

This distinction matters enormously for anyone evaluating whether a full investor cap actually forecloses their specific plans. A host who intends to live in the property and occasionally rent a room, or travel and rent the whole home during their own absences, is pursuing a genuinely different regulatory path than an investor purchasing a property specifically to operate as a non-owner-occupied short-term rental.

It's worth being careful not to blend marketing or compliance language between these two tracks. A packet written for an owner-occupied scenario shouldn't casually reference the investor cap as if it were relevant, and a packet written for an investor-owned purchase shouldn't imply that owner-occupancy is a workaround for the cap unless the buyer genuinely intends to occupy the property as described.

Anyone uncertain which track actually applies to their specific situation - particularly around what counts as genuine owner-occupancy versus a technical workaround - should raise that specific question directly with Community and Neighborhood Services rather than assuming based on general online guidance.

The Ten-Day Tulip Time Carve-Out Isn't a Summer License

City of Holland's ordinance includes a specific, narrow carve-out: a dwelling offered for no more than 10 days during the designated Tulip Time festival period in May requires no inspection and no certificate. Tulip Time 2026 runs May 1 through 10 - a specific, dated ten-day window, not a general springtime allowance.

This carve-out is easy to misread as a broader opening than it actually is. It covers exactly the festival window in May, and nothing beyond it. May itself isn't part of the market's own published peak-3 (which runs August, June, and July, with August as the peak month) - so the carve-out doesn't align with, and shouldn't be confused with, this market's genuinely strongest months.

A host who uses the ten-day carve-out to rent during Tulip Time hasn't thereby earned any ongoing right to operate as a short-term rental through the summer months that follow. The carve-out is specifically bounded to those ten May days; a June or July listing at the same property would need to satisfy the regular certificate and cap requirements just like any other listing outside that narrow window.

The safest way to use this carve-out is treating it exactly as narrowly as it's written: ten specific days in May, no inspection, no certificate - and a completely separate compliance conversation for any rental activity outside that specific window, whether that's the rest of May or any other month of the year.

Township Rules Are Genuinely Different - and Partly Unconfirmed

Holland Charter Township is governed through its own Clerk's office, located at 353 N. 120th Avenue, reachable by phone (with the specific extension for the Clerk) and by email at clerk@hct.holland.mi.us. This is a completely separate office from City of Holland's Community and Neighborhood Services, and it does not issue or administer the city's Certificate of Compliance.

Secondary sources indicate the township prohibits typical short stays of 14 days or less, except when operated as a bed and breakfast - but that specific ordinance language wasn't independently re-confirmed directly from primary township ordinance text during this research pass. That's worth flagging honestly in any compliance-focused packet rather than presenting it as a confirmed fact.

This uncertainty is exactly why a township parcel shouldn't simply borrow the city's clearer, better-documented rules as a stand-in. The city's 30-day definition, its Certificate of Compliance, and its 25-property cap are all specific to City of Holland; none of them should be assumed to apply, unmodified, to a township parcel just because both fall under the general "Holland" place name.

Anyone with a township parcel, or considering purchasing one, should treat the short-stay prohibition as a real possibility worth confirming directly with the township clerk before finalizing any short-term rental marketing plans - rather than assuming either that city rules apply, or that the absence of a confirmed city-style certificate means no rules apply at all.

Don't Borrow Grand Rapids, Grand Haven, or Saugatuck's Rules

Grand Haven publishes its own separate market figure ($28,473, in a different cluster from Holland's own data) and its own separate set of local rules - genuinely useful as a labeled comparison, never as a substitute for Holland's own city or township requirements. The same holds for Saugatuck, which publishes $48,089 across 294 listings under its own distinct city government.

Grand Rapids, despite being a short I-196 drive away, operates under its own entirely separate municipal ordinance framework that has no bearing on a Holland-area parcel's compliance requirements. A host who assumes Grand Rapids' rules - or lack of specific rules - apply simply because of driving proximity is making the same category of mistake as blending city and township rules.

Park Township, Laketown Township, and the City of Saugatuck are each their own separate governing desks as well, distinct from both City of Holland and Holland Charter Township. None of these neighboring jurisdictions' specific requirements, caps, or carve-outs should be assumed to transfer onto a Holland-area parcel without direct confirmation.

The discipline that avoids this entire category of mistake: treat every neighboring town's rules, market figures, and ordinance language as belonging strictly to that town, useful only as clearly labeled context - and always confirm the specific governing office for the specific parcel in question before assuming anything about its rules.

How to Confirm Which Desk Actually Governs a Parcel

For a City of Holland parcel, Community and Neighborhood Services - the office that issues the Short Term Rental Certificate of Compliance - is located at 270 S River Avenue, third floor, Holland, Michigan 49423, reachable at (616) 355-1330. The City Clerk's office sits on the second floor of the same building. Both offices keep regular hours, Monday through Friday, 8 a.m. to 5 p.m.

For a Holland Charter Township parcel, the relevant contact is the Township Clerk at 353 N. 120th Avenue, with a specific phone extension and an email address at clerk@hct.holland.mi.us. Ottawa County's own clerk office handles general records rather than functioning as a short-term rental licensing window for either jurisdiction.

Visit Holland, the area's visitor and tourism organization, is a marketing and visitor-information resource - not a licensing office, and not a source that can confirm zoning, cap status, or certificate requirements for a specific parcel. Any compliance question should go directly to the correct governing office, not to a tourism-focused organization.

The complete confirmation sequence: identify whether the parcel sits in City of Holland or Holland Charter Township, call the matching office directly with the specific address in hand, ask about current cap status if the plan involves investor-owned use, and get a direct answer about 2026 requirements rather than relying on secondary sources, market-data platforms, or a neighboring town's published rules.

Frequently Asked Questions

Is a short-term rental certificate required in City of Holland?

Yes. Any dwelling offered for less than 30 consecutive days per occupant requires a Short Term Rental Certificate of Compliance, issued by Community and Neighborhood Services at 270 S River Avenue, third floor. This applies specifically to City of Holland parcels, not automatically to Holland Charter Township parcels, so confirming which jurisdiction actually governs the address comes first.

Is the city's 25-property investor cap currently open?

No, as of this pass, the city's own page reports no current openings in the 25-property investor-owned residential cap. This is a genuinely important fact to confirm directly with the city before assuming a new investor-owned certificate is obtainable, since the market's 104-listing sample doesn't reflect cap availability one way or the other.

Does owner-occupied use count against the 25-property cap?

No. Owner-occupied short-term rental use, renting a room while living in the home, or the whole home during the owner's own absences, is allowed in any zone and follows a separate track from the capped investor-owned use. The two paths shouldn't be blended in marketing or compliance planning, since they're governed differently.

Does the Tulip Time carve-out allow a longer summer rental?

No. The carve-out covers only dwellings offered for 10 days or fewer during the specific 2026 Tulip Time window, May 1-10, requiring no inspection or certificate for that narrow period. It doesn't extend into June, July, or August, and doesn't substitute for the regular certificate process outside that ten-day window.

Do City of Holland's rules apply to Holland Charter Township parcels?

No. The two are separate governing offices with separate rules. Secondary sources suggest the township prohibits short stays of 14 days or less except as a bed and breakfast, but that wasn't independently re-confirmed from primary ordinance text this pass, worth flagging as unconfirmed and verifying directly with the township clerk before repeating it as settled fact.

Where is the Holland Charter Township clerk's office?

At 353 N. 120th Avenue, reachable by phone extension and by email at clerk@hct.holland.mi.us. This is a completely separate office from City of Holland's Community and Neighborhood Services, and it doesn't issue the city's Certificate of Compliance. Confirm current short-stay rules directly with this office rather than assuming township policy mirrors the city's process.

Can Grand Rapids or Grand Haven rules apply to a Holland-area parcel?

No. Each town, Grand Rapids, Grand Haven, Saugatuck, Park Township, Laketown Township, has its own separate governing office and rules. Proximity or a shared regional identity doesn't transfer one town's ordinance onto another town's parcel; the parcel's actual jurisdiction is what determines the applicable rules.

Can Visit Holland confirm zoning or licensing questions?

No. Visit Holland is a visitor and tourism information organization, not a licensing office. Compliance questions about certificates, caps, or zoning should go directly to Community and Neighborhood Services for a city parcel, or to the township clerk for a township parcel. Tourism-bureau information is useful for guest-facing marketing, but it isn't a substitute for confirming actual permitting requirements.

What's the actual published market year for Holland?

A typical year of $32,326 across 104 listings, with occupancy at 40.9 percent and an average stay of 4.9 nights. Peak-3 is August, June, and July, with August as the peak month, and January as the hole. This market data is separate from, and doesn't answer, any compliance or licensing question.

What's the first step before advertising a Holland-area short-term rental?

Confirm which specific office, City of Holland or Holland Charter Township, governs the parcel, based on its actual address rather than a general place name. That identification comes before any marketing copy, pricing decision, or assumption about which cap, certificate, or carve-out actually applies, since the two offices run entirely separate rules.

Work with Crest & Cove Creative

A buyer memo that treats 104 market-sample listings as proof the city's investor cap has room is making a real, costly mistake. The cap is currently full, and no amount of AirROI data changes that city-confirmed status.

We help hosts and buyers confirm which office actually governs a Holland-area parcel before they spend on marketing or make an offer. Send us your address and we'll point you to the correct desk and the right question to ask.

Reach out at crestcove.co or (256) 998-7502.